by Hart, Taylor
Damon nodded.
“Then there’s a project in Midway. My timetable is coming way too quick. Might have to hire some guys myself.”
Nick turned to look at him, understanding but not giving anything away. Don was from Midway, He must be the guy.
“The guy in charge, Don, is a real jerk who owns the land. Now he’s subdividing and working with our builder, but he’s always changing things.”
Damon thought about Midway. “Is it by the Zermatt?” He’d heard about the resort a few years before when he’d been skimming the Park City Newspaper. Sometimes, even though he would have never admitted this to his brothers or father, he wanted to see how the sports teams were doing or what the community was up to.
Nick shook his head. “Nope. It’s on the other side of town between Midway and Heber. You know that old elementary school that used to host the football tournaments when we were little?”
Damon liked how easily they’d all fallen back in again. He realized in that moment, when his brother had referred to his past, he’d desperately missed it. “Yep.”
Luke actually smiled. “Remember that year our team creamed Midway? And that kid punched you in the face.” He laughed.
“Hey.” Damon protested. “He was mad because I’d scored seven touchdowns on him.”
They all laughed.
Nick wiped his face. “I thought Dad would kill you and Luke because Luke just had to grab the kid from behind and pants him.”
They all collapsed together, roaring with laughter.
Damon realized how good this felt and how much he had missed it. The Boston FD had never been a total replacement for the brotherhood that real brothers offered.
The bottom of the first inning started, and they all settled down a bit, watching a couple of Red Sox players get on base. Some of the names were familiar, but the only reason Damon enjoyed watching was the camaraderie of watching a game together. It was just like in the evenings at the station between calls, watching whatever local sports time was in season.
Damon couldn’t believe how comfortable it felt between them. He thought about how Luke hadn’t sold the cabins his father had left to him. And how, as Nick had said, he was a jerk ninety percent of the time, but there was a ten percent that was good. At one time, he and Luke had been close. Feeling generous, he picked up another slice of pizza and offered to help. “I can swing a hammer for you.”
Luke turned and gave him a skeptical look. “Really?”
Damon nodded. “I did it part time back in Boston. Got my contractor’s license.”
Now Luke turned, taking a keen interest in Damon. “Do you have to take another test to be licensed in Utah?”
Damon shrugged. “Probably.”
Luke looked interested. “Are you ever gonna tell me what crap brought you back here?”
With that, the tone of the conversation changed. Luke was the last person Damon would open up to about what he’d done in Boston and what he’d gone through since.
Nick looked between them, clearly nervous. “C’mon, guys. We’re having a great time.”
“Shut up, Nick,” both of them said at the same time.
A couple of minutes went by, and none of them spoke, suddenly completely absorbed in the baseball game.
Luke turned to him. “Ya know what, it’s fine. If you want to swing a hammer, I’ll text you the address.”
“Fine,” Damon said, keeping his voice measured.
“Fine,” Luke agreed. “I’ll have someone meet you on the site with the plans.”
The rest of the game was spent in light banter. By the seventh inning stretch, the Rockies were down by eight and looking at a major blowout.
Damon stood. “I’m going to head out.”
“Me too.” Luke agreed.
“I’m staying.” Nick stood and then put both arms around their shoulders. “See, boys, wasn’t family time nice?” He flashed a grin.
Damon and Luke looked at each other and both said, “Shut up, Nick.”
“Ah, whatever,” Nick said, waving a hand in the air at them. “I’ll move over to my peeps.” He headed for a table where a couple of off-duty cops were sitting.
As they were leaving the room, Tommy Swenson and some guys from his shift were coming in. “Hey.” Tommy called out obnoxiously and pointed at Damon. “There’s the guy whose face I’m going to enjoy rearranging.”
Damon didn’t respond, just nodded to the other guys, but they all stopped with Tommy.
Luke glared at Tommy. “Well, if it isn’t the guy who lost the game at state that year.”
If Tommy were a cartoon character, he would have shot steam out of his ears. “Shut up, Freestone.” He pointed at Damon. “If I recall, it was your brother who lost that game.”
Luke scoffed. “If I recall correctly, my brother was out with an injury that last play, and you threw an interception.”
Tommy clenched his hand into a fist, and Damon braced himself to fight in the war alongside Luke.
But Luke only smiled and ran a cool hand over Tommy’s shoulder. “But hey, we’re grownups now, right? We don’t act like barbaric heathens about stupid stuff, right?”
Damon had to smile. Luke had always been able to talk himself out of a fight, and tonight it was good his cool head was here.
Tommy glared at him and then swung a look to Damon. “Night, Boston. I’ll be looking forward to pounding on you next week.”
The guys trailed off after him, and Luke glared at Damon. “What is he talking about? I thought you were fighting Nick.”
“I am. But I gotta beat Tommy first. Winner faces Nick.”
Luke screwed his face into disgust. “Well, you better pound him.”
Damon smiled. “Don’t worry.”
Luke looked him up and down. “Looks like you’ve been prepping for it.”
Damon laughed. “You’ve made me prep for it my whole life.”
They got to the front of the restaurant and went out onto Park City Main Street. The place was all lit up with lights, and there was a band further down the sidewalk. There were tourists crowding the small sidewalk.
Damon looked around, and Luke stayed next to him. “So, is it good to be home?”
Damon hesitated, noticing the emphasis he placed on that word. He let out a sigh. “I don’t know if it’s home, Luke. As you’ve pointed out so often.”
Luke sighed. “It’s always been home, Damon. You just have to decide if you want to come back for good.”
He shrugged, unexpectedly wanting to tell him everything, but he couldn’t. Luke wouldn’t understand.
Luke gave him a once-over. “Okay, well, I’ll trust when you’re ready to come clean, you’ll tell me.”
“Fair enough,” Damon agreed, relieved. He didn’t know if he liked all the family love yet or not. Didn’t know if he trusted it, or if he trusted himself.
He didn’t have much time to think about it though because a group of women stopped right next to the restaurant, and he saw her. Actually, he saw her legs first.
12
Sam didn’t know why she’d worn the stinkin’ two-inch stilettos. Actually, strike that. She did. They were red with black on the bottom, and they were the most outrageous shoes she owned. Call it stupid, but she wanted to sass it up tonight. The ladies from the office always saw her in stupid, boring lawyer clothes. Why not show them her killer going-out outfit?
So far, they’d had a great time. They’d started at Butcher’s Bar and Grill for drinks and appetizers. Then they’d worked their way up to the hot new dance club in town. After walking up Park City’s steep Main Street, her feet were feeling it, and she knew she’d have to lose the shoes to get any real dancing done. She still had a bandage on the cut from a few days ago, but luckily, it was pretty much healed up.
The girls she was with were Tina, from the front desk; Jackie, another assistant in the office; and a girl named Sharon, a friend of Jackie’s. It’d been fun, and the girls tried hard to include her. The pro
blem was they all were from Park City, and she had kinda felt like a third wheel the whole evening.
Jackie turned back, smiling at her. “I texted a couple of guys I know who are going to meet us.”
“Okay.” Sam knew she didn’t want to meet anybody else. She thought of Damon and wondered what he was doing and if he cared what she was doing, but she felt silly asking him.
As they waited in front of the restaurant that housed the club, it took her by surprise to hear her name. “Sam!”
Turning, it surprised her even more to see Damon and Luke standing a couple of feet away, both staring at her like she’d grown horns. She didn’t know if she should be embarrassed or happy. It felt like a bit of both. “H-hey,” she said, waving a hand awkwardly.
Damon gave her a funny look. Then both he and Luke joined them.
“Luke,” Tina said nervously, like she’d run into the principal when she was ditching school with her friends.
Sharon had a different look on her face though, and Luke held her gaze.
He smiled. “Sharon!” Sharon took his arm, and Damon leaned into Sam. “Old high school friends.”
“Oh.”
They started chattering, and Sam turned back to Damon, who she noticed the other women were eyeing, but he was clearly only looking at her. “So, what’s going on?”
She laughed and shook her head. “I don’t know. Zoey said I should go out and meet people.” She caught him looking at her shoes. “Do you like them?”
Then his eyes were back on hers, and they seemed to smolder. “I do. A lot.”
She felt her cheeks redden. “What are you guys doing?”
Damon hesitated, like he didn’t understand and then looked at Luke. “Oh, Nick had us come to pizza night.” He shrugged. “Rockies are playing.”
“Oh.” She realized it was the baseball team from Colorado.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
Shaking her head, she spoke faster than she wanted to, feeling like she had to explain. “Tina asked the girls to go out tonight and invited me to join.”
“So, dancing?”
Instantly, she wanted him to come. “Oh, yes, come with us. Tina said she had some guys meeting us, but I’d really like it if you would come with us.”
Sharon seemed to overhear. She tugged on his arm. “Luke, you should come dance with us too.”
“No.” Luke put up his hands in surrender. “I’m not spoiling your night by having the boss there.” He grinned.
Sam stared at Damon, who seemed uncertain until Luke was so certain. “Yeah,” he sighed. “I better get back.”
She wanted to ask what he had to get back to, but didn’t want to be presumptuous. She nodded and moved with the girls in the line. “Okay.”
Luke and Damon started backing up.
“Hey.” Sharon smiled at a new group of men. “There they are.”
Turning, her gut sank. There was Don from Midway.
And Damon was gone.
She felt herself get pushed with the shuffle into the restaurant and then through to the line with the dance club people.
Don seemed to have a radar for her and made a beeline for her side. He grinned in a “let me take you to my house” leering kind of way. “Hey. I didn’t know you were coming.”
The feeling in her gut told her he somehow had known.
Sharon didn’t come back to talk to him, absorbed by the other guys with him.
Deflecting, she motioned to the other guys. “Are those your friends?”
One of the other guys seemed interested in her too. He was blond and cute, and he moved closer and put out his hand. “Hi, I’m Steve.”
Don stood in front of him, blocking him out. “He’s nobody.” His eyes raked over her body. “You’re looking great tonight.”
In that moment, she wanted to punch his lights out, but she felt herself getting pulled with the stream down the stairs that led to the underground club, with him next to her.
It was uncomfortable, and she didn’t like it.
He flashed her a grin, and she hated being forced to walk down the stairs with him pressing so close to her. She could smell his heavy cologne and felt nauseated. “Okay, I have to admit that I kind of put a bug in Tina’s ear to set this up.”
She was ticked. That’s why she’d been invited.
That hurt. So it wasn’t that the girls in the office really wanted to be friends with her.
They got to the main area, and two guys were letting people in, one blocking the entrance and one collecting money.
Don whipped out a money clip with a ton of bills on it. “Here, I got this.”
“Oh no.” She grabbed for her purse, getting distracted by the people bumping her and trying to stay up in her heels. “No, I’ll pay for myself.”
But they were at the front of the line already, and the guy was waiting.
“Here.” Don pushed forward some cash.
Sam swiped it out of the guy’s hand. “That’s not for me. He’s not paying for me.” She stumbled and knew everyone thought she was an idiot.
“C’mon, Sam. Just let me.” Don bent down and picked up the bill.
Someone else put cash in the guy’s hand. “She’s with me.” To her utter amazement, Damon stood there, his hand on her lower back. Possessively. “Sorry, I was just saying goodbye to my brother.” He sounded funny. He turned to her. “Who’s this?”
Don scowled at him.
Her voice caught in her throat, and she coughed. “This is Don.” She looked at Don then back to Damon. “This is Damon.”
Damon put a hand out. “Nice to meet you.”
It was the friendliest tone she’d ever heard Damon use, and she could tell it was completely fake.
Don’s scowl deepened, and he didn’t attempt to reach for Damon’s hand. “Yeah.” He shook his head and stepped through the bouncers standing like soldiers who parted to let their group in.
Turning, she smiled at him. “Thank you.” She murmured.
Damon kept his arm around her waist. “I hope this is okay?”
Their eyes met, and all she wanted to do was reach out and touch the perfectly sexy scruff on his face. She smiled. “You have no idea how you saved me.”
He leaned into her as they walked to an open part of the dance floor. “I thought you didn’t like to be saved.”
Flushing, she shook her head. “Shut up and dance with me.”
The song that was on was the pumping kind of jump-up-and-down song, where you looked like a fool, but it didn’t matter because everyone looked like a fool with you.
Catching Tina’s eye, Sam watched Tina frown and look at Damon. Then she watched as Don went back to the group.
Damon surprised her by pulling her into him and pushing his face into her neck. “If you were waiting to make an announcement about us to the staff, sorry to tell you the cat’s out of the bag.” Gently, he pressed his lips to her neck. “You smell so good.”
She laughed, realizing she hadn’t even thought about wondering what anyone in the office would think. “Is there an us?”
The music changed to a slow tune, and she laced her arms around his neck.
He moved closer to her, and they were almost eye level. “Do you want there to be?”
She could feel her heart racing, and she knew she was blushing.
“You’re tall.” He whispered, smiling.
She smiled back, feeling like a fool. “Have you ever dated a tall woman?”
Grinning, he reached out, took a piece of her hair, pulled it in, and smelled it. “No.”
She batted at his hand. “What are you doing?”
He laughed and pulled her tighter, humming the song. “Going crazy. What about you?”
Letting herself relax, she put her head on his shoulder and got lost in the music.
For a few minutes, they swayed back and forth.
She couldn’t believe he was here, and she couldn’t believe that Don had showed up. And she couldn’t believe how
good it felt to be in his arms.
The song ended, and Damon grabbed her hand to pull her to the side of the dance floor.
Tina, Jackie, Sharon, and Don were all there, now joined by more people.
Sharon stepped forward, her eyes running up and down Damon. “Damon.” She opened her arms. “It’s been forever. I didn’t even realize that was you out there with Luke. You look different.”
Damon allowed himself to be hugged. Then, to her satisfaction, Damon slipped his hand into Sam’s, as if stating we’re together. “Nice to see you, Sharon.”
Pointedly, Sharon looked down at their hands and then back to Don, who was talking stiffly to Tina, shooting them daggers of death.
“So you’re back?” Sharon asked. Sam could tell she was one of those types that seemed innocent, but was always looking for the next bit of juicy gossip.
Another song started, and Damon didn’t stay around to chat. “Yep.” He tugged Sam back out to the floor.
She laughed, but before they got too far, she put up a finger. “Hold up. I have to get rid of these shoes. They’re killing my feet.” Tugging them off, she looked for a spot to put them.
Damon took the shoes and dashed off to the bar, having a short conversation that ended with him passing the guy the shoes and some money.
Then he was back, taking her hand and bending to pick up her foot.
The motion put her slightly off kilter, but his other hand supported her before she could fall. She laughed. “What are you doing?”
He put her foot back down. “Just had to make sure you were taking care of the cut.”
“It’s fine.” She loved that he remembered and cared.
They started dancing.
Feeling free and loving it, she laughed, and both of them threw themselves into the music.
A guy yelled out Damon’s name. Sam turned and saw a big guy pointing at him.